Report: News Corp. won't battle Microsoft for Yahoo

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch said Monday that News Corp. would not battle Microsoft over Yahoo, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

"We're not going to get into a fight with Microsoft, which has a lot more money than us," said Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., at the annual Bear Stearns media conference, according to Reuters.

News Corp. had been in talks with Yahoo about combining MySpace.com and other online properties owned by News Corp. in an attempt to scuttle Microsoft's unsolicited takeover bid of Yahoo.

Yahoo turned down Microsoft's unsolicited US$41.4 billion takeover bid, saying it undervalued the company. To thwart Microsoft, Yahoo had been talking to News Corp. about possibly combining MySpace.com and Yahoo, according to reports.

Time Warner has also held talks to combine its AOL Internet division with Yahoo, but no progress has been reported, according to Reuters.

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